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Lone Wolf Terrorism: Types, Stripes and Double Standards

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Lone Wolf Terrorism: Types, Stripes and Double Standards Copyright 2018 by Khaled A. Beydoun Northwestern University Law Review Vol. 112 LONE WOLF TERRORISM: TYPES, STRIPES AND DOUBLE STANDARDS Khaled A. Beydoun ABSTRACT—The recent spike in mass shootings, topped by the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas massacre, dubbed the “deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history,” has brought newfound urgency and attention to lone wolf violence and terrorism. Although a topic of pressing concern, the phenomenon—which centers on mass violence inflicted by one individual— is underexamined and undertheorized within legal literature. This scholarly neglect facilitates flat understandings of the phenomenon, and enables the racial and religious double standards arising from law enforcement investigations and prosecutions of white and Muslim lone wolves. This Essay contributes a timely reconceptualization of the phenomenon, coupled with a typology adopted from social science, for understanding the myriad forms of lone wolf terrorism. In addition to contributing the theoretical frameworks to further examine lone wolf terrorism within legal scholarship, this Essay examines how the assignment of the lone wolf designation by law enforcement functions as: (1) a presumptive exemption from terrorism for white culprits; and (2) a presumptive connection to terrorism for Muslim culprits. This asymmetry is rooted in the distinct racialization of white and Muslim identity, and it is driven by War on Terror baselines that profile Muslim identity as presumptive of a terror threat. AUTHOR—Khaled A. Beydoun, Associate Professor of Law, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law; Senior Affiliated Faculty, University of California at Berkeley, Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project (IRDP); and author of American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear (University of California Press, 2018). 187 N O R T H W E S T E R N U N I V E R S I T Y L A W R E V I E W O N L I N E INTRODUCTION: A TALE OF TWO LONE WOLVES ....................................................... 188 A. Las Vegas Shooting—October 1, 2017 188 B. The Orlando Nightclub Shooting—June 12, 2016 189 C. Two Lone Wolves, But Only One Terrorist 191 I. THEORIZING LONE WOLF TERRORISM ............................................................... 192 A. Defining “Lone Wolf Terrorism” 193 B. A Typology: Lone Wolves of Many Stripes 194 II. LONE WOLVES AND RADICALIZATION............................................................... 199 A. Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization 200 B. Radicalization and Racialization 204 III. POLICING LONE WOLF TERRORISM ................................................................... 209 A. Lone Wolf as a Terrorism Exemption 209 B. Lone Wolf as a Terrorism Connection 211 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 214 [A]t this point, we believe it is a local individual [not a terrorist], he resides here locally. —Clark County Sherriff Joseph Lombardo† As far as we can tell right now, this is certainly an example of the kind of homegrown extremism that all of us have been so concerned about for a very long time. —President Barack Obama‡ INTRODUCTION: A TALE OF TWO LONE WOLVES A. Las Vegas Shooting—October 1, 2017 Stephen Paddock peered onto the concert hall across the boulevard from the thirty-second floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel.1 The illuminated Las Vegas Strip was a familiar sight for the sixty-four-year-old, who for years walked on the very grounds he looked down upon minutes after 10 PM that Sunday evening, October 1, 2017.2 Thousands of people gathered for the country music festival across Las Vegas Boulevard, celebrating a musical † Tom Batchelor, Nevada State Law Defines Law Vegas Mass Shooting as an Act of Terrorism, INDEPENDENT (Oct. 2, 2017, 10:27 AM), http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/las-vegas- shooting-nevada-terrorism-state-law-act-police-stephen-paddock-a7978456.html [https://perma.cc/X3PH-TGMC] (characterizing Stephen Paddock, the culprit of the Las Vegas shooting). ‡ Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Obama Says Orlando Gunman Was Probably a Homegrown Extremist, N.Y. TIMES (June 13, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/us/politics/obama-orlando-shooter- isis.html [https://perma.cc/6MLL-PKPD] (characterizing Omar Mateen, the culprit of the Orlando nightclub shooting). 1 Jose A. Delreal & Jonah Engel Bromwich, Stephen Paddock, Las Vegas Suspect, Was a Gambler Who Drew Little Attention, N.Y. TIMES (Oct. 2, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/us/stephen- paddock-vegas-shooter.html [https://perma.cc/R2DX-V5FT]. 2 Id. 188 112:187 (2018) Lone Wolf Terrorism genre that Paddock counted among his favorites.3 One can imagine the scene: inches from the suite’s panorama window, Paddock’s stare was fixed and his stance frozen, high atop the city where he satisfied his zeal for gambling huge sums of money within the Strip’s familiar string of hotels.4 However, that evening, Paddock would aim to gratify a different kind of zeal. He stood feet away from his stockpile of twenty-three guns,5 which he stealthily transported into his suite. Minutes later, he used those guns to kill fifty-eight people and injure over 500 more attending the Route 91 Harvest festival concert.6 Paddock opened fire on the crowd of 22,000 at 10:05 PM, and continued shooting for the next ten minutes—a time span that probably seemed like an eternity for those below.7 The shooting was ultimately dubbed “the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history” by a number of media outlets.8 Consequently, the city of Las Vegas and Paddock’s name will forever be associated with one of the darkest moments in America’s recent memory. However, hours after the attack, before an investigation commenced, the Clark County Sherriff disassociated Paddock from terrorism by calling him a “lone wolf,” and the media firestorm covering the tragedy followed suit.9 B. The Orlando Nightclub Shooting—June 12, 2016 Before the Las Vegas massacre, the horrific shooting in Orlando on June 12, 2016, held the designation of the “deadliest mass shooting” in U.S. history.10 Shortly after midnight that Sunday morning, Omar Mateen opened 3 Amy O’Neill and Bob Ortega, The Unknowable Stephen Paddock and the Ultimate Mystery: Why?, CNN (Oct. 7, 2017, 9:40 AM), http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/06/us/unknowable-stephen-paddock-and- the-mystery-motive/index.html [https://perma.cc/JP26-YGU4]. 4 Id. 5 Barbara Liston et al., Las Vegas Gunman Stephen Paddock Was a High-Stakes Gambler Who ‘Kept to Himself’ Before Massacre, WASH. POST (Oct. 2, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post- nation/wp/2017/10/02/las-vegas-gunman-liked-to-gamble-listened-to-country-music-lived-quiet-retired- life-before-massacre/ [https://perma.cc/DG4Y-8VSR]. 6 Id. 7 Matt Pearce, David Montero & Richard Winton, Las Vegas Gunman Shot Security Guard a Full Six Minutes Before Opening Fire on Concertgoers, Police Reveal, L.A. TIMES (Oct. 9, 2017, 6:10 PM), http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-vegas-shooting-20171009-story.html [https://perma.cc/AB4Q- B8KD]. 8 See, e.g., Bill Chappell & Doreen McCallister, Las Vegas Shooting Update: At Least 59 People Are Dead After Gunman Attacks Concert, NPR (Oct. 2, 2017, 3:15 AM), https://www.npr.org/sections/ thetwo-way/2017/10/02/554976369/section-of-las-vegas-strip-is-closed-after-music-festival-shooting [https://perma.cc/5MZA-KEJZ]. 9 Delreal & Bromwich, supra note 1. 10 Maia Davis, Orlando Nightclub Mass Shooting Is Deadliest in US History, ABC NEWS (June 12, 2016, 4:06 PM), abcnews.go.com/US/orlando-nightclub-mass-shooting-deadliest-us-history/story?id= 189 N O R T H W E S T E R N U N I V E R S I T Y L A W R E V I E W O N L I N E fire inside Pulse Nightclub, a nightlife hub and “safe space” for the metropolitan Orlando area’s diverse LGBTQ communities.11 He killed forty- nine people and injured fifty more,12 during a night when 90% of the club- goers were Latino.13 Like Paddock, Mateen, a “deeply disturbed”14 twenty-nine-year-old American of Afghan heritage,15 took his own life shortly after opening fire. But unlike Paddock, Mateen was Afghan and Muslim, identities that are routinely conflated with—and inextricably tied to—terrorism.16 Because of his faith and ethnicity, Mateen fit within the embedded profile of the terrorist, and he was “raced” as such17—acting in a purely individual capacity would not change that racial and religious equation. Law enforcement and many voices within mainstream media labeled him a “lone wolf,” but the “radicalized” variety: connected—not exempted—from terrorism.18 However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was well acquainted with Mateen, and previously cleared him from terror affiliation or involvement on two occasions. FBI agents interviewed Mateen three times during 2013 and 2014, delving deep into his personal life and assigning an undercover agent to make contact.19 Ultimately, the FBI closed Mateen’s case, finding that his “connections to terrorism were . insubstantial.”20 Despite these conclusions, and the lack of material evidence tying Mateen’s murders to a transnational terror network or terrorist ideology,21 law enforcement and mainstream media outlets swiftly turned to the 39797486 [https://perma.cc/3VYW-U6TH] (“The 50 deaths, so far, are 18 more than . the second most- fatal massacre . according to data from Mother Jones that goes back to 1982.”). 11 Daniel D’Addario, Orlando Shooting: The Gay Bar as Safe Space Has Been Shattered, TIME (June 12, 2016, 4:04 PM), http://time.com/4365403/orlando-shooting-gay-bar-pulse-nightclub/ [https://perma.cc/SX7S-Z5SX]. 12 Hirschfeld Davis, supra note ‡. 13 Steven W. Thrasher, Latino Community Mourns Pulse Shooting Victims: “90% Were Hispanic,” GUARDIAN (June 14, 2016, 1:36 PM), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/14/latino- hispanic-orlando-shooting-victims [https://perma.cc/Q54J-DVP5].
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